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Hello.

My name is Mike Bianchi
and I am very happy to be here at ...

... the 2002 edition of the Government Video Technology Expo.

I'm here to give a presentation
about the
Role of Automatic Video Production in Distance Education.
I hope to make the case that
technology
now allows us to use
automation to create distance education video programs
inexpensively, easily and effectively.

As I give this presentation I am demonstrating
the AutoAuditorium System, which is a
fully automatic,
multi-camera system
that televises auditorium and classroom presentations
just like this one.

Everything you are going to see in this presentation,

all the camera work - panning, tilting, focusing, and zooming,

all the video effects and video mixing,

all the audio mixing

that go into this production are being performed automatically by
the AutoAuditorium System.

There is no crew.

In fact,
there is only one control,
it's this button,
and it tells this laptop computer to change that slide.

So let's get started.

What is education?

Well it's when you learn something you value.
You go to the time and effort to acquire information that is useful to you.

So naturally, what is distance education?

It is when you do the same process,
but instead of doing it with books or in a classroom
you do it through an audio-video medium.

For the purposes of our discussion we mean television programs,
video programs, ...

... delivered as television signals.
Now-a-days,
the computer and the internet provide another way to watch television.

What has limited our ability to use distance education video?
It has been the cost and complexity of producing the programs.

Doing a full-blown television program
requires planning, scripting,
scene-by-scene shooting and editing
if you want the highest possible quality for the program itself.

But I will claim that that is not always possible, or even desirable.

It is expensive.
It takes a lot of time.
It's difficult to react quickly with new information if you have to go
through all these steps.

So we usually eliminate some of them.

We plan and script.
Then we rehearse and shoot in a single take.

That sometimes has an advantage because then you get the energy of a live
audience.

But even that may be too complicated; too difficult.
So we eliminate some more steps.

The teacher and producer get together and plan the program.

Then the crew comes in and shoots in a single take.

And, again, that doesn't always work.

Sometimes the person speaking shows up with a
laptop,
a stack of foils, or
a Carousel of slides.
They get up and give their talk and
the production crew simply has to wing it,
shooting as they find the program.

Well that's an opportunity.

If we are using that very basic kind of presentation technique
it is an opportunity to use automatic video technology and
replace the manually operated cameras with
robotically operated cameras.
Replace the people with computers and computer systems
and create the program.

Now, that sounds wonderful.
But is it really?

Is it really what we want?
What do we save?
What do we gain by doing that?

That is what the rest of this talk is about.

Let's compare the costs.

The traditional costs of a distance education video are that

you have a crew,

you have equipment,

you either have a dedicated space like a studio
or
you use an ordinary room which you turn into a
television-studio-for-a-day.

That involves setting-up and tearing-down.

Then you record and telecast the lecture.

How does that compare with automatic distance education video production?

Well, for one thing we eliminate the crew.
It's all done with automation.

What about the equipment?

Well, you don't have intercoms and the things that crews require
but
you do have robotic cameras, lenses and pan/tilt heads,
the computer system itself and the software.
That adds up.

Let's say that the equipment costs are about the same.

Studio or reserved room?

The easiest way to install an AutoAuditorium System is to just build it
into the room, making it part it.
Because you can turn the system on or off in ten minutes
you don't have that fallow
time when the room is not available.

You also avoid the set-up and tear-down labor expense, ...

... so you still have the equipment costs,
you still have the recording and telecast costs,
but you have eliminated all those others
when you make an automated distance education video.

So I hope I have made the case that the advantages of using this
automatic distance education production technique
is that you can lower the cost and
that you can lower the
human effort required to make a program.

Now, I can hear it.

Someone is saying, "Aren't you putting people out of work?"

That's a very legitimate concern and we should address it.

Our experience has been quite the opposite.
We are not putting people out of work.
We are just making much more video.

This AutoAuditorium System is in the IBM Watson Research Center in Hawthorne
New York.

They tell us that they used to do about fifty crew-based video productions
per year.
Those are very fine programs
produced in the usual way.

They still do about fifty videos a year.

So where are the savings?

The savings are because they are also making
about 250 AutoAuditorium videos a year.

They are recording events that were not recorded in the past.

And those events represent Opportunities that were always there.
There was always the need for those videos.

It's just that no one thought it made any sense to record them.
Those talks, seminars and classes were missed because of
the cost and complexity of doing manual video production.

Now they are available.
And because they are available
the whole situation changes.

There are more education opportunities.

The question changes.

The question used to be, "Can we afford to record this class?"

Now the question has changed to,
"We've got the recording.
Who should see it?
How do we get this class to the people who need to see it?"

So this room where people come to hear seminars all the time
now becomes
the source of information, knowledge, interconnection and relationships
among employees, customers and students.

And I contend that is the value of the AutoAuditorium System
and these automatic video techniques.

It's not so much that your are saving money.
It's more that you are informing people.

The people who have the opportunity
to see these programs, that they would not see otherwise,
now have the opportunity to know things they wouldn't know otherwise.

The answers to, "Why weren't you at the talk?" used to be:
"I was on the phone with a customer."
"I was traveling."
"I was on vacation."
"I was in Europe.
I'm employed in Europe.
There is no way I can get there."

Now there are alternatives.

Which highlights another benefit.

Because these materials are so easy to produce
you can afford to distribute them around the world
to your other locations.
Now people have more opportunity to be aware of what is happening
in other corners of their organization.

And there is one last thing I wish to point out.

Creating all these videos means you have captured
all this information.
If you save it,
archive it in a library,
you can now make it available to people in the future.
They might want to know, "How did we ever come up with that?
Why did we ever come up with that?
What was the thinking back then?"

This is a record.

So that's my presentation on the
Roles of Automatic Video Production in Distance Education.
I hope I have made the case that
we can increase people's access
to classes, presentations, talks and seminars
and that we can do it at very low cost.

Together they make a compelling case
for using automation.

I will remind you that
everything you have seen
in this unedited video ...

... all the camera work,
all the video selection and effects,
all the audio mixing,
that went into making this recording were performed
without an operator.

They were performed automatically by
the AutoAuditorium System.

If you would like to know more,
please visit our web site,

www.AutoAuditorium.com

send us e-mail
or call us at

973 822-2085

and let's talk about how an AutoAuditorium System
might help you.

My name is Mike Bianchi.

I thank you very much for your attention,
and as this is the end of my talk,
I'm now available for your questions.